Robinhood, a commission-free stock trading platform, announced that residents in the state of Georgia can now invest in cryptocurrency through the app.
Users in Georgia can now trade bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin, and dogecoin. Residents should have the option to trade coins in their Robinhood app without changing any settings.
Robinhood, which started as an easy, no-fee way for retail customers to invest in the stock market, is slowing rolling out crypto trading to various states since its announcement earlier this year.
The slow roll-out is a way to gauge investor interest, according to Robinhood. Clearly, something must be going right, as the app has been adding more states at a faster clip. As another speed bump, Robinhood has to work with regulations on a state-by-state basis in order to get clearance for residents to trade digital coins. Trading is now available in over 18 states, according to Robinhood’s support page .
Robinhood currently acts more as a custodian of cryptocurrencies. Users do not have access to their private keys, and a wallet interface is not yet built in. This means users cannot send or receive coins with the app. All users can do at this stage is buy, hold, or sell the currencies. However, Robinhood has stated its plans to add transfers “in the near future.”
The initial launch of cryptocurrency trading started with only four states. Other states were recently opened up for trading including Iowa (July 31) and New Jersey (July 9).
An update from Robinhood’s blog states:
With the release of Robinhood Crypto, we’re continuing our mission of making the financial system work for everyone, not just the wealthy.
With over 4 million users, Robinhood is poised to become one of the largest crypto exchange platforms, assuming the rollout continues to run smoothly. It could also topple Coinbase as the most popular trading platform for Americans.
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